[thesummerwind]

Lowell described Mars as a cold, desert-like planet whose desperate citizens had built hundreds of canals to carry water from melting polar ice caps to farmland.

Cuckoo!

Send up Al Gore to check that out, just in case Lowell hit it on the nose.

[thesummerwind]

Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., spent 15 years around the turn of the 20th century peering through his state-of-the art telescope

This guy needed a good woman!

[cripplecreek]

``He realizes that what he's seeing is without a doubt the most magnificent public works project our solar system has ever known.''

The really big dig?

[KellyAdmirer]

``He realizes that what he's seeing is without a doubt the most magnificent public works project our solar system has ever known.''

That is just a plain weird way of describing what one thinks about finding supposed evidence of extraterrestrial life. It's like, if a multicolored saucer landed in Central Park, Katie Couric walked over and said, "Wow, that's so cool, they sure do have cool colors for their spaceships!"